According to the Sunday Times, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to take personal charge of Brexit negotiations on his return to work as he attempts to put pressure on the EU to make concessions on fisheries and regulatory alignment. The former London Mayor, who will be advised by his chief negotiator David Frost, believes it is time to inject fresh “political impetus” into the process after deadlocked talks last week. Downing Street has not yet released details of the new strategy, but the Government is expected to focus on finding new ways to “inject energy” and to “short circuit” rigid formal negotiations that are running out of time.

Mr Johnson will hold talks with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and one source told the publication the Prime Minister will tell her “the EU’s mandate is clearly not a realistic solution”.

Brussels still insists on maintaining its current fishing rights in British waters and wants London to agree to a number of EU regulations, including environmental standards, workers’ rights and state aid rules – something Mr Johnson has pledged not to do.

If the negotiations have not produced any breakthroughs by June, both Britain and the EU will be headed for a trade cliff edge at the end of the year.

As tensions are set to rise in the incoming months, a 2014 interview for The Telegraph has resurfaced, in which the former Mayor of London revealed what turned him against the European project forever.

In the interview, the Prime Minister looked back on his time as The Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent and reflected on the frustrations and foibles of the EU.

Mr Johnson was posted to Brussels as the newspaper’s bureau chief aged 24 – serving in the role from 1989 to 1994.

He claimed it was thanks to that experience that he fully realised he was an enemy of the project.

When asked whether we should admire the EU as a historical achievement, Mr Johnson said: “The fundamental idea of free trade, cooperation and mutual respects, ensuring France and Germany never go to war again… that is fundamentally not a bad idea.

“The question is ‘do you need to create supranational institutions acquiring ever greater centralised power?’

“I became convinced in my time in Brussels for the Daily Telegraph that it was not necessary.

“You need a much more minimalist approach. Free trade but without the federal institutions.”

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Mr Johnson also compared the EU to someone deliberately ordering a very expensive meal when the group has decided to split the bill.

He said: “The EU would be a lobster.

“Because the EU, by the very way it works, encourages participating members to order the lobster at the joint meal because they know the bill is going to be settled by everyone else – normally by the Germans.”

Mr Johnson drew attention to the fact that some countries pay far more to the EU’s budget than others.

Germany often ends up fitting the bill, as the industrial European power pays the largest share of the EU budget.

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It is also the biggest net loser as a proportion of its Gross National Income.

The UK, meanwhile, pays in the third largest contribution to the EU money pot and is also a net giver, contributing the sixth most as a proportion of its income, according to Full Fact.

It became one of the main main arguments for leaving the EU during the 2016 referendum.

Brexiteers long argued that money being contributed to the EU could instead be spent closer to home, investing in services in the UK.

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